Love/Hate

Series one, episode one
Conducting the first ten minutes of a new series entirely via mobile phone conversations is something of a gamble. So is expecting an audience to care immediately about a bunch of Dublin gangsters they’ve never met. This four-part drama flirts dangerously with offering too little too soon. It’s not without promise and events begin to coalesce into something like a promising narrative towards the end. But for too long, the pacing is a problem.

However, it’s just about sustained by a decent cast including Aiden Gillen as gang boss John Boy and Robert Sheehan’s prodigal footsoldier Darren – although it’s sometimes hard to accept this clean-cut bunch as the ruthless bastards we’re told they are. Tonight, an early murder leads the gang to look both within and without for a culprit – they take their time about it, but this might just be worth persevering with.